Celtics notebook: Marcus Smart enjoys a spike in his shooting

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BOSTON, MA – JANUARY 4: Marcus Smart #36 of the Boston Celtics pauses like a statue after hitting a three point basket against the Dallas Mavericks aduring the second half of an NBA basketball game at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts on January 4, 2019. (Staff Photo By Christopher Evans/Boston Herald)

Brad Stevens has said since the day Marcus Smart was drafted that it’s possible with enough work to improve a mediocre or bad shooter, and the Celtics guard has ranged between both during his career.

But as evidenced by his 4-for-8 3-point performance during Monday’s win against Brooklyn, Smart is no longer simply a volume shooter whose selection sometimes has folks in the front row wincing. His efficiency is on the rise, shooting more than four points higher than his career average (30 percent to 34.7), with the last two games, when he shot 9-for-16, a career highlight.

“I’ve been working hard on it so I’m ready to show it off and when I’m given the chance to, I’m going to take it,” he said.

Kyrie Irving has a hunch that the team’s post-practice 3-point contests, which include a varying cast of Smart, Irving, Marcus Morris, Terry Rozier, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, might have played a role in his teammate’s development.

“I think our 3-point competition helped him,” Irving said. “Just extra 3-point shooting that we’re doing. That was one of the things that I really loved while I was in Cleveland, with Mike Miller and James Jones. Shooting with those guys every day, I was getting my (butt) kicked. Those guys are professional shooters, shooting every day. Their shots are the same every time. They’ve been shooting for more years than I have and have probably gotten more shots up than I have.

“The best way to get that is just to stay consistent, practice and go against one another and make it competitive,” Irving added. “You know we’re joking around, but in the inside all of us are trying to win. We’re all joking around and having fun, but it’s always good to shoot extra and feel good about it and know that your teammates are there with you and we’re seeing your shots go in and it gives us confidence in you, confidence in us and it’s just great to build that camaraderie in competition in practice. Then it translates to the game.

“(Smart) came out and you saw he won a 3-point contest (Sunday) and he’s feeling good and shooting it and feeling comfortable. I won’t say it’s going to be every game, but when he’s open, we want him shooting shots. When he’s in rhythm, shoot shots. It’s simple. It is a credit to his hard work as well.”

Stevens might finally be witnessing the result of years of hard work.

“I’ve always felt like, he’s continued to work hard; he’s going to continue to get better,” the Celtics coach said. “I think that this year he’s been really good about playing off of others. He’s not looking for it; he’s looking for other people, he’s looking to make plays for other people. But when the ball finds him in those spots, we need him to take those and make those. And he has all year. He works hard at it. He deserves to make them. And you know this, he’s got guts. He’s going to make them when it all matters, and so it’s good to see him having some success from behind there.”

Kyrie takes charge

Irving, whose shooting influence can’t help but rub off on Smart, has also been learning from his teammates — specifically in the area of taking charges.

“It’s well-documented that I watch Marcus Smart highlights — but defensively, I literally just sit at home and watch him slide his feet and be able to beat guys to spots and take charges,” Irving said. “To be able to do that at 6-foot-4 with a great build like that, I’m like, ‘Hey, I can do that too.’ I just try to beat guys to the spot as much as possible and just be in the right spots. He’s always in the right spots, so why wouldn’t you want to watch a guy like that? And (Aron) Baynes is always in the right spots, so give credit to those guys’ instinct and their length and what they use to create defensive havoc.”

Smart, in turn, is giving credit to a former teammate, Houston’s Gerald Green, for pointing him in the direction of a talented hair stylist — the same one who braided a shamrock into Green’s hair his last season with the Celtics.

Smart showed up for the Brooklyn game sporting an equally elaborate braid pattern featuring his jersey number.

“It took 50 minutes. She’s the best braider in the country by far,” he said. “Same person as Gerald Green. Gerald kind of inspired me to get the shamrock and then we added the 36.”

Mark Murphy covered his first NBA season for the Boston Herald in 1989-90, Jimmy Rodgers' last as Celtics coach and a point when injuries were starting to overtake the careers of Larry Bird and Kevin McHale. He was one of the first NBA writers to cover professional basketball in the Olympics with the 1992 Dream Team in Barcelona, and took a detour out to western Massachusetts to chronicle the rise of John Calipari and UMass basketball. He returned to the Celtics beat in 2001, and was on hand for the dawn of a second Big Three era - this time with Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and the Celtics' 17th NBA title in 2008.